14 Facts About Leslie Illingworth

Leslie Gilbert Illingworth was a Welsh political cartoonist best known for his work for the Daily Mail and for becoming the chief cartoonist at the British satirical periodical Punch.

Whilst working at the Western Mail, Leslie Illingworth attended the Cardiff School of Arts, to which he had won a scholarship.

In 1920 Leslie Illingworth won a further scholarship, this time to the Royal College of Art in London.

Leslie Illingworth moved to the capital, but after just a few months he received news that Staniforth had died and he was offered the post of political cartoonist on the Western Mail, and he returned to Wales as Staniforth's replacement.

Leslie Illingworth took commissioned work from Owen Aves, an editor, and when Avers became an agent he found enough work for Leslie Illingworth for him to go freelance.

In 1927 Leslie Illingworth saw his first work published in the satirical magazine Punch.

Leslie Illingworth then travelled to the United States and undertook further art training in both Berlin and Paris, living in the latter for a while where he studied at the Academie Julian.

In 1938 Percy Fearon retired as cartoonist of the Daily Mail, and Leslie Illingworth applied for the vacancy, though under a pseudonym as he correctly believed that members of the Mail staff were prejudiced against his work.

Leslie Illingworth was chief political cartoonist for the Mail throughout the Second World War, and although the War brought plenty of material to draw from, Illingworth's detailed style made producing daily work for the Mail and Punch a chore.

Leslie Illingworth continued to work for the Daily Mail until 1969, though he worked for a short time for The Sun covering Paul Rigby and in 1974 he worked for the News of the World producing a weekly cartoon.

In 1963 Leslie Illingworth was invited onto the popular BBC Radio 4 entertainment programme Desert Island Discs choosing a track by Wally Fawkes and his Troglodytes, a jazz band led by a friend and fellow Punch illustrator.

Leslie Illingworth was voted Political and Social Cartoonist of the year by The Cartoonists' Club of Great Britain in 1962 and in 1966 he was a founding member of the British Cartoonists' Association and became the organisation's first President.

In 2009 Leslie Illingworth was one of ten people to be commemorated in his birth town of Barry to be awarded a blue plaque.

In 2009, Timothy S Benson published the first biography of Leslie Illingworth entitled 'Illingworth: Political Cartoons from the Daily Mail 1939 - 69'.